Human rights violations continue in Honduras

This is a fresh update written by Caitlin Roberts on events in Honduras! -Rick

U.S. imperialism is alive and well, this much we know. Here in Honduras,
rifle-bearing soldiers and cops, or perhaps police dressed in military
garb, or perhaps private security guards borrowing police uniforms – it's
never easy to tell – are vigilant at grocery stores, Dunkin Donuts, and
banks, as well as rural communities. Where do these armed forces get their
funding? You guessed it, your wallet.

Of all security funds pouring into Central America from Washington, 52% go
to Honduras' highly corrupt and repressive post-coup military outfit.
Since the military coup d'etat on June 28, 2009, which was condoned and
forgotten by the U.S. government, over 400 Hondurans have been targeted
and killed in acts of state repression, whether for violating curfew, for
being a feminist, or for working in alternative media. Thousands more have
been detained, wounded, and tortured, and countless Hondurans are harassed
daily specifically for their political views and actions.

Land use is the main struggle in this country. Peasants, or campesinos,
are fighting for their right to land for subsistence farming. Thirty
percent of the land in Honduras was recently promised to foreign mining
corporations. Hydroelectric dams, coastal tourism projects, and
monoculture megaprojects are all threats to Honduran campesinos. As
indigenous, Garifuna (communities of African descent), and campesino
resistance movements gain momentum, repression against them also grows
stronger.

Honduras was reintegrated into the Organization of American States on June
1, 2011, after the celebrated return of ousted president Manuel Zelaya
Rosales. The National Front of Popular Resistance, or FNRP, welcomed his
return with the largest gathering in Honduran history but find that the
reintegration of the country into the OAS is a huge step back for the
resistance. The FNRP had proposed 4 requirements for reintegration –
Zelaya's return, along with all other exiles; the recognition of the FNRP
as a political party; the improvement of the human rights situation in the
country; and a participative national assembly for a new constitution.
None of these requirements have been fulfilled, and of these four, only
one has even been touched. Just a handful of exiles have returned to the
country, one of which, Enrique Flores Lanza, is under house arrest.

Clearly human rights violations in Honduras continue in force, the justice
system is worse than broken, and democracy is no more than a fanciful
dream or a word thrown around for diplomacy's sake. Twelve families run
the country. The oligarchy owns a vast proportion of fertile land,
controls legislation, business, the military, and all other state
institutions. One example of this twisted web is that former president
Carlos Flores Facussé, the nephew of the richest man in Honduras, landlord
Miguel Facussé, founded La Tribuna, the largest newspaper in Honduras, and
his daughter Lizzy Flores is the country's new United Nations ambassador.

Facussé's scope is enormous. He fits the image of a classic feudalistic
colonial king. He controls an army of 200 private security guards, who are
ruthless in their oppression of campesinos who live on his illegally
claimed territory. Facussé bought up the hill of Zacate Grande little by
little from families who had worked their land for generations, both
through threatening them and by offering more and more money until the
campesinos sold their ancestral land. The hill is now home to this
oligarch's private hunting grounds, to which he has imported exotic
animals such as white deer for the sole purpose of the sport of killing.

Campesinos across the country are organizing fervently against the reign
of Facussé and several other underhanded landlords. The Aguán valley,
located in northern Honduras, is an incredibly militarized region where
curfew is still in place in some regions. This valley is extraordinarily
fertile, attracting foreign investors in African palm cultivation for
export as biodiesel and palm oil. Some farming communities have been
displaced for over a decade, migrating from one palm plantation occupation
to the next in violent eviction processes. The author was present during
an attempted eviction of a community from the land it had been holding for
11 years.

Scorched earth in Rigores, Cortez, Honduras

On July 1, 2011, a group of 18 U.S. and Canadian citizens traveling as
human rights delegates with Alliance for Global Justice and Rights Action
arrived to the community of Rigores, as a response to an alert that police
were scheduled to evict these campesinos from their land. Upon arriving,
delegates learned that about 120 families had already been evicted on
Sunday, June 26 and that the police were on their way to remove them from
the community center in which they were taking refuge so that the
campesinos would not return to the land where their homes had stood a week
earlier.

Shortly after the delegates arrived, around 9am, they received word that
the police were approaching Rigores via a side street, burning houses
along the way. The delegation traveled along with community members to
the site and stood in a line facing the police, who were slowly
approaching. Some took position by hiding behind vegetation. One sniper
hid behind a tree throughout the encounter. This highly militant aspect
contrasted with the respectful attitude presented by these heavily armed
men. Community leaders, local human rights activists and delegates spoke
to the police chief for about 45 minutes about the legality of the
eviction. When asked for the eviction order, the chief presented a
document of complaint that cited an event involving ''heavily armed
campesinos'' which had supposedly occurred on June 30th, though it was
signed by a judge on June 11th. No eviction order was presented. After
about three hours the police finally left; however, the risk that they
could return remains.

The delegation members collected testimony from the campesinos about the
violence perpetrated by police forces on June 26th. One woman's account
detailed the brutality with which the police tore these campesinos away
from their land. The police entered her home with guns drawn and pointed
menacingly at her family members. They pulled a mattress out from under
her four small children, who rolled onto the floor, treated ''like little
rats.'' A cop asked for her identification card and promptly burned it.
These police, including a special forces COBRA unit, known for decades of
human rights violations, poured gasoline around her house and set it on
fire, leaving no time to collect any belongings. After this violent
process, several women either gave birth or miscarried due to the physical
and emotional stress of these events.

Animals such as dogs, cats, and chickens were set on fire or left to burn.
Acres of community corn fields were scorched. These shameless police
forces reportedly walked through the orange tree fields cutting branches
off the plants and eating the fruit. They also confiscated a pig and other
livestock, as well as a tractor given to the community by ALBA, the Latin
American trade alliance. The brutality with which this eviction was
carried out is clearly an illegal violation of human rights as part of the
heavily escalated violence that still penetrates Honduran police and
military forces. The United States government is pouring taxpayer dollars
into this militarization, as it has been doing in Honduras for decades.
One example of this horrible waste of money is the U.S. air force base of
Palmerola.

Protest at Palmerola air base

On the morning of June 28th, around 200 people gathered a few miles away
from the entrance to Palmerola Air Base, which is located in Honduras but
used by the United States Air Force. The marchers proceeded towards the
main gate to denounce the US's military presence and its role in the
overthrow of Honduras' democratically elected government on June 28th,
2009. The plane that sent Honduras' president Manuel Zelaya into exile on
that day flew from the capital, Tegucigalpa, to Palmerola before
continuing in the opposite direction to Costa Rica.

The protest was organized by COPINH, the Civic Counsel of Popular and
Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, which works to oppose multinational
mining, agricultural, tourism, and hydroelectric energy projects. These
projects, which have been fast-tracked under the post-coup government,
work the current system to cheat Garifuna, Lenca, and other Honduran
people out of their farms and land.

Also attending the march were about 25 citizens of the United States, who
were present to monitor police behavior, to support COPINH's
anti-exploitation struggle, and to protest the misuse of taxpayer money on
militarization in Honduras.

Traffic on the highway was blocked for over an hour. At one point, a young
Honduran activist got too close to the wall of the air base, bearing a
large stencil and a can of spraypaint, and a police officer (dressed in
military garb) pulled him to the ground in a stranglehold. As other
marchers, including an elderly Lenca woman, approached the scene, the
police pointed rifles at them menacingly. Without warning, at least 2 tear
gas canisters were fired and the marchers fled down a nearby street, then
promptly continued the march. No one was detained or severely injured,
although some emerged with bruises and cuts sustained from baton strikes.

Upon reaching Palmerola's main gate, there was a rally in the driveway in
which the people chanted, “Yankee trash out of Honduras!” and “More food,
zero weapons!” The crowd also remembered the hundreds of activists that
were shot and killed by the police in the 2 years since the coup,
chanting, “Present with us today, tomorrow, and always, they keep on
living through our struggle!”

A call to action

The attitude of the Obama Administration towards the Honduran government
is one of acceptance and encouragement. U.S. citizens have, albeit
limited, power to influence representatives to cut the flow of money into
the hands of the corrupt and violent Honduran oligarchy. The cash set for
militarization in Honduras would much better serve the public interest
paying for education and healthcare domestically.

The transnational economic and military forces that are violently
oppressing the creative and youthful resistance in Honduras are the sames
forces which are working against the personal and collective freedoms of
North Americans. There are thousands of ways in which we can each fight
these giants, and of course, together we are stronger. To debilitate the
Honduran oligarchy, international and Honduran activists are needed in
both countries. One very needed role for international activists is that
of accompanier, or human rights observer. Local organizations are calling
for Spanish-speaking activists to join long-term international
accompaniment teams here which monitor human rights violations and live in
communities in which militarization is escalating, such as Zacate Grande
and in the Aguán valley. International accompaniment allows local
organizers to continue with their work with a highly decreased risk of
state violence. For more information on accompaniment, go to
campamentoshonduras.blogspot.com or www.friendshipoffice.org/honduras.